Reptilia · Crocodylia
Osteolaemus tetraspisCope, 1861
Dwarf crocodile
Photograph by Sunčana Bradley, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating crocodilian from the Afrotropic region, reaching 190 cm nose to tail.
Also called Broad-nosed crocodile, West African dwarf crocodile.
Reptilia › Crocodylia › Crocodylidae › Osteolaemus
- Grows to
- 1900mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 69years
What is known
28 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable
- Population trend
- Unspecified
The animal itself
- Colour on the back
- Yellow
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 69years
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1900mm6 ft 3 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 279mm11 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 80,000g176 lb
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 40,000g88 lb
- Body mass at hatching
- 55g1.9 oz
largely converted from length by allometry in the source
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Wetlands
- Region
- Afrotropic
Amphibians, invertebrates, fish, mammals, reptiles
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 11.65eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 10–20eggs
- Egg length
- 70mm2.75 in
- Egg width
- 68.5mm2.75 in
- Age at first breeding · female
- 1825days
Naming and history
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Cope
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1861
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
4478kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 80,000 g, the heaviest recorded for Dwarf crocodile — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Still living
- — Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Limbs
- — Pattern on the back
- — Sex decided by
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Red List criteria
- — Biome
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Suborder
- — Infraorder
- — Type locality
- — Active in
- — Mainland or island
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
- — Highest it lives · above sea level
- — Range size
Others in Crocodylidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Osteolaemus tetraspis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/osteolaemus-tetraspis
@misc{osteolaemus_tetraspis_2026,
title = {Osteolaemus tetraspis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/osteolaemus-tetraspis}
}Sources
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.